Surnames

Sunday, July 22, 2012

On The Road to Wisconsin

This morning my husband and I embarked on our 2012 Great American 1,800 mile Road Trip.We left coastal southern California’s 73º weather and drove into 110 º “furnace” of Nevada.Similar weather in the coming weeks only with humidity.

We’re heading to Dorchester, Clark County, Wisconsin to participate in the Williams/Bartunek Family Reunion that’s going to be held on Saturday, 28 July.Our great-grandparents are the connection.(My maternal grandmother was a Bartunek.)

I’ve been emailing and collaborating with several of the cousins’ for about 10 years.It’s been great sharing family information and getting connected again with my mother’s side.Some of the cousins live in the area; some are driving from Illinois, Michigan and parts unknown to me.

I also have cousins from my mother’s paternal side of the family in the area.We’ll be visiting with one of her cousins the day following the reunion.I talked to her a few weeks ago.She wanted to know what I wanted to do/see when we meet.I told her not to worry about taking me to “see the sights, I just wanted to visit.”She asked if I wanted to go to any cemeteries while we’re there.Oh wow!I said, “Yes, of course!”

A week after the reunion we’ll be driving across the state to visit with another cousin of mine.We haven’t seen each other close to 50 years I think.With all of this coming up, I’ve been busy updating my genealogy program to Roots Magic-5; scanning photos my mother had; scanning vital record documents; finally inputting the new facts with sources in the program.While on the road I’ll still need to printout family group sheets and make a genealogy CD for each family.